Attractive guidelines for users

Transcription

1 Attractive guidelines for users EUROPEANA REGIA CIP-ICT - PSP Compilation, chapters 1, 4, and 6 by Torsten Schaßan (HAB) Chapter 2 by the libraries. Chapter 3 by Thierry Delcourt (, BnF) Chapter 5 Ourouk company, Céline Bodin (BnF) 1

2 Executive Summary January 2010 marked the beginning of the Europeana Regia project, which will digitise 888 rare and precious manuscripts from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with the collaboration of five major libraries located in four countries and the support of the European Commission. The project is expected to run for thirty months (January 2010 to June 2012) and will draw together three collections of royal manuscripts that are currently dispersed and which represent European cultural activity at three distinct periods in history: the Biblioteca Carolina (8 th and 9 th centuries), the Library of Charles V and Family (14 th century) and the Library of the Aragonese Kings of Naples (15 th and 16 th centuries). These manuscripts will be fully accessible on the websites of the partner libraries and will also be included in Europeana. The principal objective of Europeana Regia is to reconstruct, in the form of a virtual library, the most important European royal collections of documents from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. This project will provide a means for researchers and the general public to access these rare and precious documents, through platforms such as Gallica, Belgica, Manuscripta Mediaevalia and Europeana, by Managed by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (BnF), Europeana Regia unites five European libraries as consortium partners - the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich (BSB), the Universitat de València Biblioteca Històrica (BHUV), the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (HAB) and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Bruxelles (KBR) - and concerns almost nine hundred manuscripts that are representative of the political, cultural and artistic history of Europe. This project focuses on three sets of manuscripts which are currently dispersed among different member States: Carolingian manuscripts, the manuscripts of the library at the Louvre in the time of Charles V and Charles VI, and the library of the Aragonese Kings of Naples. In addition, the project covers a number of complementary actions, such as the definition of procedures to be followed by the partner libraries (digitisation, organisation of metadata, multilingualism), the compilation of metadata through cataloguing and indexation, and the digitisation process itself. The partners chose to focus on these historical, and even legendary, manuscript collections from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, because: they are representative of a time when a common European culture was not a dream, or an objective, but a reality at least among 'intellectuals' and the powerful; they contain many masterworks, from a time when painting was in books, as the famous French scholar François Avril has put it; they have been studied, at least partly, and detailed research metadata are already available for some of them; their gathering on Europeana would allow us to reconstitute broken collections (for the libraries of Charles V and Aragonese kings of Naples), to make new links with other, similar collections, and to illustrate the circulation of knowledge and art through Europe (for every topic, but specifically the Carolingian manuscripts). 2

3 Contents Executive Summary 2 1. Introduction 4 2. The libraries Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (BnF) The Bnf Additional contributing libraries and institutions Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München (BSB) Universitat de València. Biblioteca Històrica (BHUV) Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (HAB) Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Bruxelles (KBR) 8 3. The manuscript collections Bibliotheca Carolina - Royal Manuscripts from the Carolingian Era Library Charles V. and family - a paradigm for princely libraries reconstructed Library of the Aragonese Kings of Naples The manuscripts What should one know about a manuscript? What is it? Identification What is it? Basic physical description What is in it? Summary title What is in it? Textual language Where and when was it produced? Basic historical description Who has owned it? Basic historical description Who has contributed to it? Statements of responsibility What do we know about it at all? Basic bibliography Structural metadata How can manuscript information be accessed? Access via Europeana Access via the project website: europeanaregia.eu Access via local presentations Portals User needs and expectations Interest shown by the target audience of the Europeana Regia project Details of user expectations Scholarly information: researchers Editorializing the content: teachers and interested general public Search methods in the corpus and presentation of the results Viewing and manipulating documents Peripheral tools and collaborative sections Conclusions Technical aspects Metadata Digitising manuscripts 61 3

4 1. Introduction This publication presents the project 'Europeana Regia' in all its aspects: the partner libraries involved, the manuscript collections to be reconstructed, the manuscripts to be digitised, the expectations expressed by potential users, and the techniques applied. Not all parts of this description are of equal interest for all readers. While experts in manuscript studies may already know the partner libraries and something about their manuscripts and specialities and therefore may wish to skip the respective descriptions, more general, interested users might wonder what manuscripts are all about or what special treatment they might deserve. On the other hand experts might be interested in details concerning the project and technical aspects such as manuscript cataloguing and delivery of data to portals, which may not be as interesting for the more general audience. In order to address these diverse interests, the first two chapters on the libraries and the collections are targeted primarily at a more general audience. The first half of the third chapter, dealing with manuscripts as historical sources, includes a basic introduction to manuscript studies and medieval manuscripts. The second half of this chapter may be of equal interest for all readers: Here we explain which type of information is presented at what portal and which the circumstances and particularities of use are. The last chapters then go into detail concerning the project, manuscript cataloguing and the encoding of information. Users' expectations as recognised in a survey which has been carried out in the course of the project will be found at the end of this volume. Chapter 6 Technical aspects gives a general overview. Further information about metadata for manuscripts and digitising manuscripts is available in the two Europeana Regia reports 'Vademecum for librarians' and 'State of the art in image processing' which will be published soon. Europeana Regia is one of the largest projects in the field of the digitisation of manuscripts or early printed material: 874 manuscripts, i.e images, will be digitised. The results of this collaborative project performed by five partners in four countries will be fully available via Europeana as well as the Europeana Regia website established by the BnF ( Several additional partners (the British Library, Biblioteca nazionale di Napoli, E-codices, digital library for manuscripts of Switzerland) will contribute additional material in the future and other institutions may follow. 4

5 2. The libraries 2.1. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (BnF) The Bnf The National Library of France (BnF) is the heir to the royal collections which have been assembled since the end of the Middle Ages. The first institution in France to be made responsible for administering legal deposit from 1537 on, it is the largest library in France and one of the major libraries in the world. The library's collections amount to a total of 14 million books, which grow by about 150,000 volumes each year, mainly through acquisitions and legal deposit. Besides printed books, its collections include several million manuscripts, maps, prints and engravings, photos, musical scores, coins, medals, recordings, videos and multimedia documents, objects, objets d'art, theatrical sets and costumes. These collections are spread across 14 departments for specialised or thematic collections and are made available to the public (mainly composed of researchers) in reading rooms at the François-Mitterand site in the 13 th district of Paris and at the historic Richelieu site (17 th century) in Paris' 2nd district. Gallica, the BnF digital library, offers reproductions of more than 1 million documents in text, image or recorded formats for consultation. The BnF mission is to collect, archive and preserve books, as well as to see to research and the diffusion of its collections, most notably through exhibitions organised for the general public, either on its premises or online. The collections preserved at the Manuscripts Department, located at the Richelieu site, are encyclopaedic: 'chansons de geste' (epic poems), Arthurian romances, romance languages, oriental literature, religions of East and West, ancient history, history of science, literary manuscripts, including those of Pascal, Diderot, Apollinaire, Proust, Colette, Sartre, etc. The 'cabinet des titres' (cabinet of titles) along with the armorials are the main resources in genealogical and heraldic research. The library's collections are organised into holdings and special collections based on language: Greek, Latin, French and other European languages, Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopian, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, languages of the Near and Middle East, Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, languages of India, Vietnamese, etc. or according to their content: Scholars and Bibliophiles, Scholars' Collections, Library Archives, Genealogical Collections, French Provinces, Masonic Holdings, etc. The manuscript collections include a large number of ancient copies, unica, scientific texts, decorated and painted manuscripts as well as manuscripts in varying shapes and fabricated from a variety of support materials (woodcuts, prints ). Today, the department is particularly concerned with collecting, classifying and making available to the public the personal archives of French writers. In collaboration with other institutions, several projects to digitise manuscripts have begun: Optima (Flaubert's, Proust's and Valery's manuscripts) with ITEM (Institute of Modern Texts and Manuscripts) and supported by the National Research Agency, the French manuscripts of the Roman de la Rose in conjunction with the Mellon Foundation, etc. 5

6 Additional contributing libraries and institutions The BnF is responsible for all French contributions to the project and has concluded specific contracts with the the following institutions: Bibliothèque d'amiens Metropole Bibliothèque d'angers Bibliothèque municipale de Besançon Bibliothèque municipale de Bourges Bibliothèque municipale de Grenoble Bibliothèque municipale de Louviers Bibliothèque municipale de Reims Bibliothèque municipale de Rouen Bibliothèque municipale de Valenciennes Society of Science, Arts and Literature of Aveyron in Rodez Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris. The Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon has already digitised its Carolingian manuscripts, and will make the corresponding digital images available for integration into the project Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München (BSB) The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is one of the most important European general libraries and ranks among the best research libraries on an international scale. It forms Germany's virtual national library together with the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in Frankfurt and Leipzig. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is also the central state library and repository library of the Free State of Bavaria. With almost 10 million books, about 50,000 current periodicals in printed or electronic form and more than 90,000 manuscripts, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is one of the prime national and international addresses for researchers, students and all those seeking information. The library's unique collection profile is characterised by extremely precious manuscripts, rare printed books and comprehensive special collections from thousands of years of cultural heritage. But at the same time, the library is rising to the challenges of the future. As an innovative force in the field of digital services, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is continually enhancing its digital and Internet-based services, through mass digitisation of its collections and the development of innovative digitisation technologies. The Munich Digitisation Centre, established in 1997 as a national competence centre, 'Virtual Subject Libraries', the 'Bavarian Regional Library Online', the Centre for Electronic Publishing in the Humanities and a Public-Private Partnership with Google are examples of the active role of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in managing the transition to digital, network-based information services for research and study. The collection of Western manuscripts of the period from the 6 th century to the 20 th century currently comprises approximately 37,000 codices, among them approx. 17,000 in Latin, 10,700 in German, 1,000 in French, 940 in Italian, 650 in Greek, 145 in Spanish and Portuguese as well as 100 in Slavic languages. A great number of these manuscripts were taken over from the dissolved Bavarian monasteries, among which was the Freising Cathedral library. The Freising holdings (bearing the shelfmarks Clm ) are extremely rich in manuscripts of the eighth and ninth centuries, 72 of which contain decorative elements, mainly initials. The exceptional Freising collection, which has come down to us almost completely, puts art historians in the rare position to study the development of the ornamentation of initials in a single scriptorium during the 6

7 Carolingian period. The library is deeply committed to digitizing its unique and extremely rare holdings. To this end, several digitisation projects are being conducted. These projects are first and foremost concerned with early printing, mainly from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: the block books (full-page copies printed from wooden blocks) preserved in the BSB and other Bavarian collections, the library's 9,900 incunabula and the more than 40,000 printed books from the sixteenth century that are described in the VD16 (National Retrospective Bibliography for German 16 th century printed books). While these projects are funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), the Public-Private Partnership with Google will enable the library to digitise more than 1,000,000 books published before As regards the manuscript collection, a large portion of the illustrated 'Codices iconographici' as well as an increasing number of manuscripts from convents has been digitised within the DFG framework so far. Most of the other digital images that are available online have been produced in minor projects or 'on demand' Universitat de València. Biblioteca Històrica (BHUV) The origin of the Library goes back to the donation, in 1785, of the books belonging to Francisco Pérez Bayer. Other professors offered their own collections to enlarge the university 'bookstore', which was inaugurated in 1788 under the rectorship of Vicente Blasco. Unfortunately, most of this original collection was lost in the Spanish War of Independence ( ). However, during the 19 th century the library received several donations from professors and Valencian scholars, who bequeathed their private collections to it. According to the intellectual interests of donors, the collections were focused on literature associated with Valencia, as well as works of law and science. During the 19 th century, after the Mendizabal Disentailment Laws, the Library increased its collections significantly with the arrival of books from the secularised monasteries from the region of Valencia. Among them was the Monastery of San Miguel de los Reyes, with the very rich library of the kings of Naples, founded by Alfonso the Magnanimous and legated by Fernando of Aragon, Duke of Calabria. Some of these masterpieces will be a special target for digitisation within the Europeana Regia project. Besides the manuscripts, other important collections include incunabula, which, although not very numerous, include several unique copies, and printed books from the 16 th to the 18 th century, among them samples from the most important printing shops in Europe. The collection of 19 th century printed books includes works of importance to the history of science. The University Library was, during and after the Spanish Civil War, a depository for the books requisitioned from institutions and private individuals, which constitute a highly useful collection for the study of social history and graphic arts at that time. It is worth mentioning the collection of Valencian posters about the Spanish Civil War. At present, the Library maintains a policy of acquisitions focused on ancient works printed in Valencia and written by Valencian authors. The Historic Library of the University of Valencia is still located in its original building at La Nau St. (C / Universitat, 2, 46003, Valencia), which has been completely restored. Due to its holdings, the 'Histórica' is one of the most important libraries in Valencia. The library collaborates regularly in the organisation of exhibitions, lending its holdings for institutional events, locally, nationally and internationally. 7

8 2.4. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (HAB) More than 300 years ago, the Herzog August Library was already celebrated as the eighth wonder of the world. In 1666, at the time of Duke August's death, it was one of the most famous dukal book collections and, in view of the number of printed books, arguably the largest library worldwide; the collection of medieval manuscripts was amongst the most important in Europe. Today, the Herzog August Library is one of the oldest libraries still intact, preserving the cultural memory in the research field of European cultural history of the mediaeval and early modern periods. One thing that is so special about our library is that it is full of activity, it is being used, points out Prof. Dr. Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, director of the Herzog August Library. The Wolfenbüttel library provides the setting for a number of scholarly events, in addition to a diverse cultural programme, which includes a series of events such as the 'Wolfenbütteler Gespräche' (Wolfenbüttel Talks) on issues of religion in civil society. This also includes conferences, workshop discussions and guest seminars on a wide range of topics. The promotion of young researchers is important to us, says Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer. With the aid of grants, which are internationally announced, numerous young researchers from all over the world come to Wolfenbüttel in order to study the sources of their research interests. Special exhibitions make the comprehensive holdings, which have many treasures on offer, including the Gospels of Henry the Lion, accessible to a wide audience. The Herzog August Library already represented the epitome of sciences and the mirror of the academic universe for Leibniz, who, like Lessing, worked as a librarian in Wolfenbüttel. Lessing's drama Nathan the Wise, promoting religious tolerance and humanity, was written during his time in Wolfenbüttel Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Bruxelles (KBR) Founded by the young Belgian state in 1837, the Royal Library was opened to the public in Its history really started, however, with a collection of 900 manuscripts assembled in the 15 th century by the dukes of Burgundy, who during that period ruled the Low Countries. The Royal Library of Belgium comprises several historical libraries, including those of the Burgundian dukes (enlarged in the 16 th century by the Spanish King Philip II), the religious orders abolished in the late 18 th century, private collectors like Charles Van Hulthem ( ), and the collection of the city of Brussels. As the former palace of Charles of Lorraine, in which the Burgundian library had been installed since the end of the 18 th century, had become unsuitable - mainly because of a lack of space - it had been decided, even before the Second World War, to construct new buildings. This was carried out on the Mont des Arts. The new library, dedicated to the memory of King Albert I, was inaugurated in

9 Since 1966, the library has administered the Belgian legal deposit system and national bibliography. Playing the role of a general conservatory of the national heritage, it presently holds some 5 million printed books, 35,000 manuscripts (including circa 270 codices of the Burgundian library), 200,000 maps, 700,000 prints, 10,000 drawings and 120,000 coins and medals. As the central scientific library, it is its task to acquire, to catalogue and to provide for consultation, scientific information, especially in the field of humanities, and to direct the researcher towards the most complete and recent scientific documentation. Within the scope of Europeana Regia, the Royal Library of Belgium will digitise 30 Carolingian manuscripts and 8 codices from the library of the French King Charles V, which will also be included in Belgica, the virtual library of the institution, launched in The manuscript collections How have the collections been chosen for digitisation in the project Europeana Regia? The partners chose to focus on historical, and even legendary, manuscript collections from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, because: they are representative of a time when a common European culture was not a dream, or an objective, but a reality at least among 'intellectuals' and the powerful; they contain many masterworks, from a time when painting was in books, as famous French scholar François Avril has put it; they have been studied, at least partly, and detailed research metadata are already available for some of them; their gathering on Europeana would allow us to reconstitute broken collections (for the libraries of Charles V and Aragonese kings of Naples), to make new links with other similar collections, and to illustrate the circulation of knowledge and art through Europe (for every theme, but specifically the Carolingian manuscripts). The precise quantity of Mediaeval and Renaissance manuscripts that are still preserved in Europe and in the World, both in public and private collections, is uncertain. The number should be more than 600,000 but less than 800,000. But only a part of them are illuminated and of any interest for a general audience: the main part are text manuscripts like collections of sermons, proverbs or commentaries on Biblical texts. And there are only five collections that are shared among several European countries: Carolingian manuscripts, because they were copied and illuminated at a time when Europe was a united Empire the manuscripts digitised in Europeana Regia represent around 50% of the total amount of Carolingian manuscripts preserved in Europe. The Louvre Library of King Charles V, because it was sold during the Hundred Years' War, and then spread between several collectors such as the Duke of Bedford the relevant manuscripts digitised in Europeana Regia represent 80% of the total amount of Charles V's manuscripts that are still preserved in the World. The library of the Aragonese kings of Naples, because a part was kept by the Aragon dynasty and sent back to Spain, another part remained in Italy, and the remainder was transferred to France, from where some items circulated to Great Britain and Germany the relevant manuscripts digitised in Europeana Regia represent 70% of the total amount of the Aragonese kings of Naples' manuscripts that are still preserved in Europe. The Corviniana, Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus' library, had been collected from about 1460 onwards. The library might have contained codices at the end of Corvinus' life, of which around 650 survived. This collection has begun to be digitised already: BSB, HAB, KBR and BnF participated in the Corviniana project which aims at the virtual reconstruction of the library. ( The Library of Burgundy which, due to wars and many border changes, is now split between 9

10 Brussels, Paris, Vienna, Madrid, Besançon, London. As a distinct project on this collection is being developed by the Royal Library of Belgium, this collection has not been included in the Europeana Regia project. The other royal collections of mediaeval manuscripts are preserved in one (or sometimes two) libraries, and cannot be considered as forming part of the heart of a collaborative project of several European institutions Bibliotheca Carolina - Royal Manuscripts from the Carolingian Era The Bibliotheca Carolina is a collection of masterworks from the main abbeys and episcopal schools of the Carolingian Empire (8th-9 th centuries), including Reichenau, Saint-Denis, Corbie, Reims, the royal abbey of Saint-Amand-en, Freising, and Wissembourg. The manuscripts show the intellectual and artistic activity of these centres of religious life, ecclesiastical and imperial power, and their numerous exchanges of texts and patterns. The Carolingian manuscripts owned by the Bibliothèque nationale de France form one of the richest collections in the world. The nearly 1100 manuscripts from the 8 th and 9 th centuries and 400 from the 10 th century were made in many different centres throughout the realm. The history of the collection is tied to that of the Royal Library. The manuscripts belonging to the Carolingian rulers were never passed on to their descendants, and were thus not part of the first royal library founded by Charles V, which was housed in the Louvre. The story changes starting in the 16 th century: at that time, ancient manuscripts began to draw the attention of scholars, who collected them for their own use or for deposit in the king's library. During the French Wars of Religion, a number of religious institutions were destroyed and their collections sold. Many of their treasures entered the king's library either directly or as donations from private collections. Further acquisitions of Carolingian manuscripts were made in the following centuries, notably that of the collection of Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1732, which was particularly rich in books from this period. It was the French Revolution, however, that provided the BnF with the greatest number of manuscripts, confiscated from religious institutions. During the First Empire, manuscripts continued to be seized in the border provinces and abroad. Towards the mid 19 th century, this remarkable collection of ancient manuscripts provided a cornerstone for the new Museum of the Monarchy, founded by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in Charlemagne's Evangeliary (BnF NAL 1203), which had been presented to Napoleon I in 1811 at the birth of his son, was exhibited next to the Psalter and First Bible of Charles the Bald. The Revolution also brought an influx of prestigious ancient manuscripts to several municipal libraries, such as that at Reims, which received collections from the cathedral library and other religious institutions in the vicinity, and Valenciennes, where a large number of manuscripts from the royal abbey Saint-Amand-en-Pevèle are located. Several other European libraries house collections of manuscripts from major Carolingian religious and intellectual centres, such as the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, which holds the 10

11 collections from Freising and Regensburg in Bavaria. Similarly, the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel houses a very important and homogeneous collection of manuscripts from Wissembourg Abbey in Alsace. The manuscripts selected for digitisation within the Europeana Regia project will bring together coherent groups of manuscripts of similar origin in a virtual setting, regardless of where they are housed today Library Charles V. and family - a paradigm for princely libraries reconstructed The Library of King Charles V is the most outstanding royal collection of illuminated manuscripts from the 14 th century, which was, thanks to the circulation of copies, at the heart of aristocratic culture in France, England, Flanders, and Burgundy. «Est biau tresor a un roy avoir grant multitude de livres.» So ends the debate at the court of Charles V of France, reported in 1378, which argues for the need of a royal library replete with books both old and new, for books are a rampart against tyranny. The library assembled by Charles V and lodged in the Falconry Tower at the Louvre was more than a fabulous collection of books (over 900 volumes in 1380) put at the disposal of the king and his counsellors. It was quite extraordinary for its time in having nearly 2500 texts in French, thus illustrating the promotion of French as the language of learning and government. The library was a sign of royal authority, a prerogative of the king of France, and was, in this sense, already a State library. The frontispiece of the French translation of John of Salisbury's Policraticus, where the wise king is seated before a revolving bookstand, is emblematic of this authority (BNF MSS Français 24287, f. 2). The king had smaller libraries in his residences at the Hôtel Saint-Pol, Melun, Saint-Germain and especially at Vincennes, where the most precious books were kept, some fifty exquisite psalters, books of hours and paraliturgical texts. Two sources allow us to picture the library of Charles V in the fourteenth century: a series of six inventories written in 1380, 1411, 1413 and 1424, which give information on the topographical organisation of the library, its contents and the market value of the books at least 120 manuscripts (the number is not definitive) have been identified in thirty institutions around the world, of which 69 are in the BnF, 7 in other French libraries and 44 in libraries outside of France. Many of these have been studied by Leopold Delisle (Recherches sur la Librairie de Charles V, Paris 1907, 2 volumes), by François Avril (La Librairie de Charles V, exhibition at the National Library of France, 1968), as well as other scholars. The library began to deteriorate bit by bit after it was inherited by Charles VI in It was eventually sold to the Duke of Bedford, then regent of France, for next to nothing. The Duke had the library transferred to Rouen and, upon his death in 1435, the collection was sent to London where it was broken up. Modern technology will allow for the virtual reconstruction of the first French royal library, based 11

12 on information in the 1380 inventory. Three manuscripts are already fully accessible on the internet: the French version of the Miroir des dames by Durand de Champagne, dedicated to Jeanne de Navarre, wife of Philip le Bel: manuscript Corpus Christi College 324, Cambridge the Miracles de Notre-Dame by Gautier de Coincy, painted by Pucelle for Jeanne de Bourgogne, wife of Philip VI de Valois: manuscript NAF 24541, BNF one volume of Saint Augustine's Cité de Dieu, translated by Raoul de Presles: manuscript Typ 201, Houghton Library of Harvard Nearly 80% of this prestigious library will be reconstructed by the Europeana Regia project through the digitisation and scientific cataloguing of 76 manuscripts in French libraries, 10 manuscripts in the Royal Library of Belgium and 12 manuscripts in the British Library in London. The library of Charles V became a model for royal and aristocratic libraries in the 15 th century, as will be illustrated by a digitised selection of some sixty manuscripts drawn mainly from the libraries of Louis d'orléans and Jean, duc de Berry, both renowned bibliophiles who played significant roles in the management of royal affairs in the late 14 th and early 15 th centuries Library of the Aragonese Kings of Naples The Library of the Aragonese kings of Naples is a stupendous collection and a unique concentration of masterpieces of French, Venetian, Neapolitan, Lombard, and Spanish illumination. It is the symbol, beyond political frontiers, of the cultural unity of Europe. The library assembled in the 15 th century by the Aragonese kings of Naples is the third component of the Europeana Regia project. This project will allow for the virtual reconstruction of a collection that is literally scattered throughout Europe. Today, the manuscripts are located in over a dozen institutions: in France: in the municipal libraries in Besançon, Grenoble, Louviers, Rouen; in the Société académique de l'aveyron in Rodez; in the Château de Chantilly and, of course, in the Bibliothèque nationale de France elsewhere in Europe: in the Nationalbibliothek in Berlin, the University Libraries in Cambridge and in Leiden, the British Library, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III in Naples, the Vatican Library and the Biblioteca Històrica de la Universitat de València in Spain. This project provides an opportunity to update research on this collection (which started with the Biblioteca napoletana, written by Tammaro De Marinis forty years ago) and to make its texts and illumination better known. Of the 800 manuscript and printed books from the Aragonese library which are currently housed in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, about 200 manuscripts have been selected for digitisation: the manuscripts bought by cardinal Georges d'amboise from King Federico of Aragon, which constitute a luxurious and coherent collection, both textually and artistically, and 12

13 which are close to the works and sets that are preserved in the other institutions. Their full reproduction will allow for further study of their history. the manuscripts written in Spanish or Italian appropriated by Charles VIII of France. These are not as well known but just as important. Manuscripts that had not previously been identified as Neapolitan will be added. Representative of royal tastes, the collection includes books such as poetry anthologies and treatises on shoeing horses. All the French holding institutions will be contributing to Europeana Regia: the municipal libraries in Louviers, Rouen, Grenoble and Besançon will digitise their manuscripts within the scope of the project, while the Château de Chantilly will contribute existing images. In Europe, the Biblioteca Històrica de la Universitat de València and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich are currently participating. The Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III in Naples may join the project at a later date. 4. The manuscripts How have manuscripts been selected for inclusion in the project? First of all, it was the king's choice to collect manuscripts for their libraries. The kings needed or wanted to have certain texts in their libraries and thus ordered copies of these. As the manuscripts were meant to be representative as well, they are heavily decorated, at least for the French and Aragonese kings. (In the Carolingian age book decoration usually does not exceed the coloured letters as found in Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Guelf. 35 Weiss., fol. 2r or Munich, BSB, Clm 6252, fol. 2r) One has to be aware that all transmission of texts in the Middle Ages until the age of print (that is the late 15 th century) took place in handwritten form. The word 'manuscript' means handwritten (lat. manu scriptum ). This has serious implications for our understanding of what a text is at all in these times. Texts were not as stable as printed texts today. To produce a manuscript, usually another manuscript had to be copied. The process of copying did not produce a one-to-one copy, though, because the text itself was changed. Texts could contain mistakes made during copying, and the scribes often 'interpreted' the text: They changed them in multiple ways, by extraction, by combining the texts with other knowledge, or even by 'correcting' the texts according to their understanding. The project's selection of manuscripts focussed on two aspects: Selecting as complete collections of manuscripts as possible, from the libraries falling within the scope of the project, e.g. the collections of Carolingian monasteries; Selecting as precious manuscripts as possible, for they require and deserve special treatment that can best be undertaken and coordinated via a project such as Europeana Regia What should one know about a manuscript? When dealing with medieval manuscripts, the most important things to know might be the very same as with other -especially historical- materials, except that the information might be much more difficult to gather: What exactly is the object one is dealing with? What is the content of the manuscript? Who are the authors of the texts contained in it? When was the manuscript produced? And where? By whom? Who owned the manuscripts? Who read or used them? What can we actually know about the manuscript? These basic questions relate to the seven basic categories which contain crucial information for the understanding and interpretation of manuscripts: 13

14 Category / Question What is it? What is in it? Where and when has it been produced? Who has owned it? Who has contributed to it? What do we know at all about it? Aspects in the description Manuscript identifier Physical description Summary title Textual languages Historical description Statements of responsibility Basic bibliography What is it? Identification The identifier of the manuscript consists of at least 3 elements: the name of the place where the repository is located that holds the manuscript; the name of the repository itself; the shelfmark (call number) of the manuscript. Example Paris, BnF, Latin 5831 München, BSB, Clm In some cases, as in the Munich example, the shelfmark itself contains information about the other aspects as well : «Clm» is short for «Codices latini monacenses». «Monacenses» on the other hand is the Latin form of «from Munich» which thus provides additional information about the place name. In cases where the shelfmark itself is not the most important identifier used by the scholarly community or the interested public, other means for identification might also be applied. Most often this will be either a former shelfmark, a catalogue number, or a given name. Example Codex Arundel London, British Library, Arundel 263 Book of Kells Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS A. I. (58) One has to be careful not to overstress this option: The 'Codex Sinaiticus' for example is both well known as such but also dispersed into pieces which are located in four different libraries. In a description of one of these pieces it would not at all be sufficient to give only the name of the codex; one would still have to cite the place where the item or fragment is located in order to properly identify the object What is it? Basic physical description To get an idea of the manuscript, one needs to know about its size, how voluminous it is, and of what materials it consists. Thus, the basic physical description covers the following aspects: support material(s), number of leaves, size of leaves. The support material(s) lists the main materials written upon, normally entailing the values parchment or paper or both. The number of leaves gives the number of leaves that form the book block. The information can be as short as: 14

15 Example 25 foll. The number of extra leaves at the front and back may be added, usually using Roman numbers. Example III + 25 Bl. The size of leaves is given with their height and width, seldom with any reference to the thickness of the entire book itself. The measurements are usually in cm or mm. Example 29,5 20 cm. The addition of another element to refer to the physical form of the carrier, for example as a codex, roll, fragment, partial leaf, cutting, etc is still under discussion What is in it? Summary title For a long time in the history of cataloguing manuscripts the summary title has been the only information given about the contents of a manuscript. Thus, the summary title of the manuscript consists of one or both of the following elements: the title of the text(s) (which may be a supplied title); the author's name(s). Three different types of summary titles can be distinguished: the title which contains 1. a single text or kind of text; Example Evangiles Theolog. Sammelhandschrift Breviarum romanum 2. a combination of an author's name and the title of his work; Example S. Hieronymus, Epistolae S. Augustinus, De civitate Dei 3. multiple combinations of author's names and the titles of their works. Example S. Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Sermones. S. Maximus Taurinensis, Sermones. S. Basilius episcopus Caesariensis, Sermones What is in it? Textual language In some cases it might not be sufficient to know the title of a text or who the author was, but in addition, where a text has been written or copied. Taking into consideration a text like the Bible, the summary title would just be 'Biblia'. But to know whether the text is really a 'normal' Latin text, or a vernacular copy in some regional dialect one is interested in, or maybe a multilingual, parallel edition, could be of highest importance. In some cases, the cataloguer will note dialects already in the summary title, stating e.g. 'Biblia (ndd.)', meaning a bible in lower middle German. In any event, it is always useful explicitly to state which language the text is composed in, especially if different from Latin. The language information is given according to the language codes defined in the ISO standards ISO and in order to ensure consistent indexing. Example cat Catalan, Valencian frm French, Middle (ca ) 15

16 goh German, old high (ca ) gsw Swiss German; Alemannic Where and when was it produced? Basic historical description The basic historical description consists mainly of the following elements: place of origin date of origin previous owners The place of origin is the place where the manuscript was written. It is given with as much detail as possible. If known, the scriptorium is mentioned. In other cases, a city, or region, or country is given. Example Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (Paris) Florence Southern France The date of origin describes the time when the manuscript was written. It is given as detailed as possible. If known, the year is mentioned. In other cases, a time span, or a terminus ante quem and terminus post quem are given. The terms 'terminus ante quem' and 'terminus post quem' refer to points in time before (=ante) and after (=post) which something must have happened. In the case discussed here, the act of producing the manuscript would be the event. If for example it is known that a certain manuscript has been written during the tenure of an archbishopric by a certain person, the date upon which he took this position is the 'terminus post quem', whilst the date of his death provides the 'terminus ante quem'. Information about the date of origin is stored not only in human language but in coded forms as well, according to the standard ISO 8601 in order to ensure consistent indexing. Example 1472 before Jh., erstes Viertel (= ) Who has owned it? Basic historical description The history of the manuscript is not sufficiently described by means of dates and facts about its production. As books are meant to be and "want" to be read, it is of great interest to note where the book has "lived" over the centuries, who has owned it at different times, and thus to discover who actually read it or might conceivable have read it. Identification of previous owners, other than the repository that hosts the manuscript at the moment, are very valuable. Thus, any information about persons and/or institutions as owners should be described. If previous ownership is expressed by the simple fact of former shelf-marks that belong to other institutions, these would serve two purposes, namely to identify the manuscript and relate something of the owners' history Who has contributed to it? Statements of responsibility While the author(s) of the text(s) in the manuscript might have been dead for centuries after the manuscript was written, other persons may have contributed more recently to it. Copyists, especially, had a considerable influence on the text as it appears in the manuscript. Usually, copyists not only copied a text from another manuscript; nor did they usually write down only what they had 16

17 read or heard. Copyists produce errors, conscious and unconscious; they might not have learnt their Latin well enough and thought to emend the text. They might have read other texts and combined the two, meaning to enhance the text. They might even extract content from the text they want to copy in order to make it more understandable. Copyists are authors to a certain extent! While the text was written by one person (this is not meant literally, for manuscripts were sometimes produced by a whole scriptorium full of copyists!), space on a page might have been left free to allow room for another person to illuminate and decorate the page. As text offers a very different mode of perception, decoration may add another level to this. In particular, so called 'historiated initials', initials whose bodies are filled with images of persons or scenes, may give the reader additional insights into the meaning of the text. At the very least, images especially those executed in Gold give an idea about the importance of the text or the book itself to the initiator. If the manuscript has been produced as a gift, the wealth of decoration shows the respect and appreciation of the donor for the recipient. Other statements of responsibility, mainly for copyists and illuminators, may be indicated where encountered. Example Copyist Cantes Bonagius de Cantinis (Paris, BnF, Latin 1767) Winithar-Minuskel (St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 2) Illuminator Attavante (workshop of) (Paris, BnF, Latin 1767) What do we know about it at all? Basic bibliography Who has done research on a manuscript? With what frequency or when, most recently, have people published something about the manuscript? What are the questions other people are interested in when they consult a certain manuscript? These and other questions might be answered via primary bibliographical information. The basic bibliographical description consists of two distinct types of information: on the one hand information about the record description itself on the other hand the most important bibliographical items concerning research done on the manuscript. Basic bibliographical information doesn't exceed 3 items, describing the manuscript as a whole or very important aspects of its history or relevance. Further bibliographical information is available in the academic description Structural metadata Structural metadata offer additional possibilities for navigating through the manuscript. These include e.g. the concordance between pagination/foliation and image numbers, anchors to places where textual divisions, illuminations, or additions to the text are to be found. Usually, structural metadata are collected during or immediately after the digitisation process. Within the parameters adopted for digitising of manuscripts featured in Europeana, only the concordance between pages and images is mandatory, so as to relate the description to the images How can manuscript information be accessed? Before the advent of online portals that make manuscripts available in digitised format, written and printed catalogues have been the most important means of providing access to manuscripts and the contents. Still, a digitised manuscript is difficult to understand without further scholarly information. Hardly anyone wants to flip through hundreds of images of a manuscript in search for e.g. the one single word written in Old High German, in the middle of a text written entirely in 17

18 Latin. Thus, information in catalogues is still very valuable, making not only the manuscripts themselves accessible, but also the mass of associated images.1 Within the Europeana Regia, considerable effort project is being concentrated on the supply of scholarly information on the manuscripts. For most manuscripts concerned printed catalogues have been turned into an electronic text and fed into the data formats as described below in 6.2. Digitising manuscripts. Additionally, for most manuscripts existing information has been updated or if the existing information has proven unsatisfactory, or no information at all has been available new descriptions have been prepared. Where possible the use of normative data, e.g. for personal or place names, has been applied in order properly to identify persons, institutions, etc. Along with the digitisation of the manuscripts, information about the images has been compiled. This type of information is called structural metadata. Europeana Regia is not in itself a full cataloguing project, but it gives access to existing information and thus stimulates the creation of new academic data. The project is intended ultimately, as a part of Europeana, to use interoperable platforms and standards, such as XML formats for the description of manuscripts and illuminations (EAD or TEI), and OAI-PMH for the harvesting of data. Making information and images available (according to parameters as outlined above) can be achieved via several publication paths and methods such as various webpages (local homepages, local project pages2, Portals, such as Europeana or the CERL Portal) or as lists distributed by means of RSS feeds3 or by means of the web 2.0', e.g. a Facebook page.4. In order to discuss at which portals information for Europeana Regia manuscripts are available and what kind of special circumstances apply with regard to use and data quality, we start from the Europeana site, since the whole project has been funded primarily to supply images to Europeana. The project's webpage, europeanaregia.eu will be described next, then each of the local presentations; finally, but not least, we review other portals on which Europeana Regia manuscripts do and will appear Access via Europeana The initial goal of Europeana Regia is to provide content for Europeana, which aims to be the primary digital content portal in Europe. All manuscripts from the project will be delivered via TEL (cf Portals) into Europeana and will be identified as a specific corpus. The metadata delivered to Europeana will be the same as in TEL: concise metadata in the original language of the provider. Concise metadata are the information that have been discussed in 4.1. What should one know about a manuscript?. At this point, Europeana offers a full multilingual interface in 28 languages, but all records are in one version, in the original language of the data provider.5 Of course, if Europeana implements tools for hosting parallel linguistic versions of the same metadata, the Europeana Regia corpus will be ready to display its data in six languages, since the data is already stored on the project website ( All manuscripts in the project can be found in Europeana by typing Europeana Regia (with double quotation marks) in the main search field or using this link: 18

19 Figure 1. Presentation of the search result at europeana.eu The manuscripts found will be presented in a thumbnail view first. One thumbnail has been provided to Europeana during data delivery and is stored in the Europeana database. In the tabular overview the manuscript title, authors if present and the providing institution will be shown.6 A click on a thumbnail opens the more detailed and expanded view of the respective manuscript. The information categories visible in the first place are: title authors and contributors date of origin place of origin language data provider country of the institution 19

20 Figure 2. Presentation of a single object at europeana.eu At the bottom of the listed information the 'More' button offers the option to look for additional information on the manuscript. Among the items to be found by clicking on this link are subject terms, possibly further details on location, dating, or relationship between the manuscript to other resources. An example is the project context of Europeana Regia, listed only there. Some of these items are linked in turn to the search function of other resources such as Wikipedia, Google or Worldcat. These search functions do not relate to the types of information provided by the project but are an add-on service by Europeana. At the very bottom of the page there is the link View in original context which leads to the local representation of the manuscript. When viewing the information on a manuscript in Europeana, it is important to realise that either not all information available at local manuscript databases is delivered to Europeana or at least it is not shown. Usually the full text of the description should be available to a full text search of Europeana, even if the text itself doesn't show in the web presentation. A second issue to be noticed are the few information categories available in this view that are sometimes filled with more than one value. For example the field date might be filled with many different values. The dates shown might be dates of the origin of the manuscript as well as the date of digitisation or the date of cataloguing the manuscript. The dates are not necessarily to be distinguished by their exact meaning. The limited number of fields is due to the fact that Europeana strives to offer as many digital items 20

21 as possible from as wide a range of materials as possible, covering textual materials as well as images, video, and sounds. In order to compile this wide range of materials one needs to identify common pieces of information about the objects. The well-known data format Dublin Core offers such categories, broad enough to allow for many materials to be described with it. Dublin Core provides the basis for Europeana's data organisation. Europeana is not at present able to store more than one description per object. Neither descriptions in multiple languages nor descriptions from different authors can be offered to users. The full wealth of information about the Europeana Regia manuscripts is therefore offered in a different location. Where concise information has been translated into multiple languages, the translations will be stored on the project website europeanaregia.eu Access via the project website: europeanaregia.eu The project website is available at the address The website, public access to the metadata, the digitised manuscripts and the cultural and educational pages will be provided in several European languages: English, French, German, Catalan, Spanish (Castellano), Flemish and, if possible, Italian. Figure 3. Homepage of europeanaregia.eu The complete interface, editorial content and concise metadata on manuscripts will be available in six languages: Catalan, English, Flemish, French, German and Spanish. It will be possible to switch from one language to another on each page (upper left corner of the page). Although general information about the project, the libraries, and the historical manuscript collections is provided in at least six languages, the website will be dedicated mainly to presenting multilingual metadata, which will allow users who don't speak all of the project languages to find some basic information about the manuscripts from the different participating libraries. As the participating libraries are presented under the tab Project Europeana Regia and the collections are presented under the tab Historical collections, the first approach to manuscripts is already given there. 21

22 Figure 4. Collections at europeanaregia.eu, here: The Bibliotheca Carolina The manuscript tab allows users to browse the corpus according to the following criteria: Collection (Carolingian, Charles V of France, Aragonese) Repository Period (century) Language Each time the user selects something from the menu on the left, further choices are offered, and the first manuscripts displayed. 22

23 Figure 5. Manuscripts at europeanaregia.eu 23

24 Figure 6. Manuscripts listed by repository at europeanaregia.eu To all these pages applies the rule that only the concise metadata is translated into the various languages, and this is done semi-automatically. Many of the aspects could be translated automatically, but some could not and those had to be translated manually. Automatic translation was possible for: Date of origin Personal names, by provision of norm data Place of origin, by provision of norm data Material Illumination Language as well as all category names. Additionally, some elements did not need to be translated such as the shelfmark, extent, dimensions, and bibliography. In order to complete the description in each language, the database entry has to be copied manually into all languages. Due to this, different numbers of manuscripts may be shown under each language. This reflects progress made in translating the descriptions, which we aim to complete as soon as possible. The full academic metadata will not be translated into the other languages but will be provided in the national language(s) of each participating library. In a forthcoming version of the site it will also be possible to search by Title, Author, Shelfmark and Place of Origin. In each manuscript record, there will be a link to the full academic metadata in the original language of the institution and a link to the full digital surrogate in the local digital library. 24

25 Figure 7. Presentation of a single object at europeanaregia.eu Where norm data has been applied, which is the case for personal and place names, a link is provided to the norm data entry, from which the original norm data can then be accessed. 25

26 Figure 8. Norm data entry for a name of a person at europeanaregia.eu Figure 9. Norm data entry at VIAF, Vincent de Beauvais, d

27 Figure 10. Norm data entry for a placename at europeanaregia.eu Figure 11. Norm data entry for Freising at TGN The website is run by a user-friendly Content Management System (Drupal) which allows any staff member to easily add or change content on the dynamic site Access via local presentations Europeana Regia is presented in different European languages on the systems of the participating libraries. Each participating library will offer a complete digital surrogate of the manuscripts on its website. The local digital library is the only place where the manuscript will be accessible in full, with a complete set of technical metadata helping the user to find their way through the digital object (such as page or folio numbers for example). 27

28 In most of the libraries a direct link takes the user to a presentation of the Europeana Regia corpus; other libraries will create a special file for the project. Access to the digital objects includes: Access via the digital library: the search criteria are based on the search fields in bibliographical records in Dublin Core format. A full text search can also be provided to the users when the text has been either OCR'ed or manually entered. Access via the catalog: this kind of research can provide more search criteria as the used format (mainly MARC21, UNIMARC or INTERMARC) has more bibliographic fields and could also give access to the authority records. Local presentations Library Direct link to Europeana Regia Corpus Bibliothèque nationale de France Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Biblioteca Histórica de la Universitat de València Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel Bibliothèque royale de Belgique Complete corpus Carolingian manuscripts ndex&q=regiacarol+or+regiacharlesv+or +RegiaAragon ndex&q=regiacarol Aragonese manuscripts ndex&q=regiaaragon Manuscripts of Charles V of France and Family ndex&q=regiacharlesv g=sig&projekt= Project webpage Manuscript database %20regia Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) The BnF offers access to the digital library Gallica started in 1997 and which contains today more than digitised objects: more than books, volumes of journals, maps, manuscripts, 4380 sheets of music etc. Manuscripts in Gallica are accessible for free, with a zoom function that allows users to see images in full high-resolution. Middle resolution JPEG images or PDFs can also be downloaded. In association with the BnF, some French libraries will provide access to their manuscripts via Gallica: the municipal libraries of Amiens, Besançon, Bourges, Grenoble, Louviers, Reims, Rouen, Valenciennes and Lyon, the Society of Science, Arts and Literature of Aveyron in Rodez, and the Sainte Geneviève and Mazarine libraries in Paris. The base address for accessing the Europeana Regia corpus in the local database is iaaragon 28

29 Figure 12. Overview list in Gallica with manuscripts that belong to the Europeana Regia collection Clicking on Informations détaillées will show the concise metadata on the manuscript. Figure 13. Detail view of a manuscript in Gallica. Access to the manuscript is effected via the links Accéder au document and Feuilleter. The digitised manuscript opens in the local viewer. 29

30 Figure 14. View of a single manuscript page in Gallica. Users can zoom in by clicking on the magnifier icon in the upper left corner. Figure 15. Zoom mode in Gallica Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München The base address for accessing the Europeana Regia corpus in the local database is 30

31 Figure 16. Overview list in BSB with manuscripts that belong to the Europeana Regia collection Clicking on the URN brings the user directly to the digitised manuscript. 31

32 Figure 17. The digitised manuscript, BSB, Clm 52 Clicking on BSB-Katalog (upper right korner) opens the OPACplus, providing concise information on the manuscript. Figure 18. OPACplus view in BSB Clicking Alle Titeldaten in the tab of the lower box will show all information on the manuscript. 32

33 Figure 19. Concise metadata in the OPACplus view in BSB The option Online lesen will give access to the digitised manuscript. Further information on the manuscript is available at the German national database 'Manuscripta Mediaevalia'. A link to this information is given in the OPAC in the tab Weblinks under Handschriftenkatalog. Clicking this link will open the Manuscripta Mediaevalia website and list the catalogues, which for the moment are available mainly as digital images of the catalogue. Figure 20. Information on BSB, Clm 52 at Manuscripta Mediaevalia Biblioteca Histórica de la Universitat de València The base address for accessing the Europeana Regia corpus in the local database is Once the user arrives there, they will be provided with a list of digitised manuscripts. 33

34 Figure 21. Overview list in BHUV with manuscripts that belong to the Europeana Regia collection Clicking on one of the links will open a window with preview information about the manuscript, including both concise metadata and a preview image. 34

35 Figure 22. The digitised manuscript, BHUV, Ms. 735 Clicking on the image will open another window and present the digitised manuscript in the manuscript viewer. 35

36 Figure 23. The digitised manuscript, BHUV, Ms. 735, in the viewer Clicking on the image will enlarge the view and allow users to browse through the digitised manuscript. Figure 24. The digitised manuscript, BHUV, Ms. 735, Single page opened Selecting the zoom mode allows for closer inspection of the manuscript. 36

37 Figure 25. The digitised manuscript, BHUV, Ms. 735, Zoom modus The i link in the upper left corner will bring up a window with a description of the manuscript. 37

38 Figure 26. The digitised manuscript, BHUV, Ms. 735, Pop-up with description The Catalogue link underneath the manuscript title will allow to see the manuscript information in yet another setting, this time the OPAC of the library. TROBES is the name of the University of Valencia Library Catalogue in which all the library materials (books, journal, theses, maps, e- journals, databases, e-books...) are searchable and available online. 38

39 Figure 27. The digitised manuscript, BHUV, Ms. 735, Catalogue Metadata can be accessed directly in the MARC format. 39

40 Figure 28. The digitised manuscript, BHUV, Ms. 735, Catalogue, MARC format Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel The base address for accessing the Europeana Regia corpus in the local database is 40

41 Once the user arrives there, they will be provided with a list of digitised manuscripts. Figure 29. Overview list in HAB with manuscripts that belong to the Europeana Regia collection Clicking on one of the links takes the user to the main page for the manuscripts which presents the most accurate and up-to-date information together with bibliographical links to existing manuscript descriptions. Figure 30. The overview page for HAB, Aug. 2 Clicking on one of the links in the bibliography will take the user to the catalogue text accompanied by the digital facsimile. 41

42 Figure 31. Catalog view for HAB, Aug. 2 All descriptions can be accessed in the original XML format, provided by a link in the upper right corner. Navigation within the digital facsimile is done in the right-hand frame. Clicking on Faksimile in der WDB leads the user to the presentation of the manuscript in the local digital library. Figure 32. Manuscript presentation in the WDB, HAB, Aug Bibliothèque royale de Belgique The base address for accessing the Europeana Regia corpus in the local database is either for carolingian manuscripts or for manuscripts of Charles V of France and Family. Once the user arrives there, they will be provided with a list of digitised manuscripts. 42

43 Figure 33. Overview list in Belgica with manuscripts that belong to the Europeana Regia collection, here Bibliotheca Carolina Clicking on Metadata will open a window with preview information about the manuscript, including both concise metadata and a preview image. 43

44 Figure 34. The digitised manuscript, KBR, Ms Clicking on the link Het document doorbladeren, either on the overview list or the preview page, will open another window and present the digitised manuscript in the manuscript viewer. The viewer offers access to high resolution images through zooming, and a list of all digitised pages, presented as small preview pages arranged at the bottom of the screen. 44

45 Figure 35. The digitised manuscript, KBR, Ms. 1312, in the viewer The 'Plus'- and 'Minus'-buttons allow for closer inspection of the manuscript. Figure 36. The digitised manuscript, KBR, Ms. 1312, Zoom modus Portals At a regional or national level, some web portals will also provide access to the Europeana Regia corpus The European Library The European Library is a free service that offers access to the resources of the 48 national libraries of Europe. While from the beginning of The European Library only national libraries were contributing to the portal, very recently The European Library has opened its doors to research libraries and is actively seeking new members. This is a great opportunity for the research libraries of Europe to expose their metadata at the highest level.7 45

46 Figure 37. The TEL portal (new beta version) The European Library also provided the initial organisational structure and expertise required to launch Europeana. The European Library is the 'aggregator' for the project Europeana Regia. 'Aggregator' means, that The European Library collects metadata from all Europeana Regia participants, performs some harmonisation processes on all data and does a bunch delivery to the Europeana portal. Besides this function, The European Library hosts the data and presents it in its own portal. This is due to the fact that Europeana and The European Library address different user groups: while Europeana is targeted at the general European public, The European Library wants to provide more scientific oriented data and addresses a scholarly public such as researchers. It provides a basic and an advanced search with the following criteria: title, creator, subject, type, language. The European Library will also create a special page, presenting the Europeana Regia corpus with a description and a set of images. Each record hosted in The European Library will offer a direct link to the full surrogate in the local digital library. The access to the Europeana Regia corpus in the The European Library portal is possible through the search Once the user arrives there, they will be provided with a list of digitised manuscripts. 46

47 Figure 38. Search result in the TEL portal for Europeana Regia with manuscripts that belong to the Europeana Regia collection Europeana The presentation of the digitised manuscripts in the Europeana portal is the main goal of the project. The list of manuscripts that belong to this 'virtual collection' is available right now only through searching for the term Europeana Regia. 47

48 Figure 39. Search result in Europeana for Europeana Regia with manuscripts that belong to the Europeana Regia collection Besides this thumbnail preview, Europeana offers a timeline presentation which places all manuscripts according to their date of origin. 48

49 Figure 40. Timeline presentation of the dearch result for Europeana Regia Clicking on any thumbnail will open a window with preview information about the manuscript, including both concise metadata and a larger preview image. 49